Forquer's Estate

Citations

• 216 Pa. 331
• 66 A. 92
• 1907 Pa. LEXIS 815

Syllabus

<p>Will — Contingency—Condition.</p> <p>To make a will contingent or conditional it must clearly appear from its language that it was to operate only during a certain period or in a certain event.</p> <p>When the event which constitutes the contingency expressed in the instrument can be reasonably construed to have been the occasion for making the will at a particular time rather than as the reason for making it in a particular way, it should be so construed.</p> <p>Unless it appears from the will itself that it was not to operate in a certain event, it will be entitled to probate.</p> <p>The character of a will, as being contingent, or not contingent in its operation, depends on the intention of the testator as expressed in the will itself without the aid of extrinsic evidence in the form of subsequent declarations made by the testator in an incidental way, as to the disposition of his property. This rule, however, does not exclude evidence of the republication of a will already made, but which has been rendered inoperative by the happening of a contingency therein mentioned.</p> <p>Testator directed as follows: “I intend starting to-morrow morning to Montana to see my brother. Knowing the uncertainty and risk of a journey, know all persons that I do hereby will and bequeath” my real and personal property to my wife. “Also all judgments owned by me, and notes due me are hereby bequeathed to my said wife. . . . And should anything befall me while away, or that I should die, then in that event all my estate, money, notes, property of every nature and description, both real and personal, are hereby assigned, conveyed and set over to my wife for her sole benefit.” Held, that the will was not merely contingent upon testator’s death on his journey, but continued operative after his safe return, and his death thereafter.</p> <p>In such a case the construction of the will made by the court is further sustained by the fact that the testator a few days before his death repub